film festival

Founded in 1954, Berkshire County Arc provides a broad range of community-based services to 650 individuals with developmental disabilities, brain injuries and autism throughout Berkshire and Hampden Counties in Massachusetts. The agency offers three day programs, 35 residential programs, employment services, citizen- and self-advocacy programs, respite services, an adult family care program and Zip 'N Sort Mail Services.

On Saturday, March 28, the Berkshire County Arc Down Syndrome Family Group will host the 2015 Berkshire County Sprout Film Festival at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass. The Festival begins at noon and will feature short films about individuals with various disabilities, their lives and personal achievements.

Here to tell us more are Jessica Dennis, Adult Family Care Case Manager at Berkshire County Arc and Amy Robandt, Director of Family Services at Berkshire County Arc.

The Williamstown Film Festival was founded in 1998 to fill a cultural gap in a part of Massachusetts known for its world-class museums, theater, music, and dance – the Berkshires. Because film seemed the missing link in an artistically rich region, some two dozen local residents and graduates of Williams College felt strongly that a film festival could bridge the gap.

Now in its 16th year, The Williamstown Film Festival will present films, parties, and panels November 5th through the 9th in Williamstown and North Adams, MA.

Here to tell us more are Williamstown Film Festival director Steve Lawson and Program Consultant, Sandra Thomas.

FilmColumbia is a five-day festival dedicated to showing world-class independent and international films. Produced by the Chatham Film Club, the festival has consistently offered its audiences an early look at films that go on to garner critical approval, major box office success and awards.

This year’s festival kicks-off today and runs through Sunday in Chatham and Hudson, NY. In addition to screenings of anticipated films like The Imitation Game, Low Down, Birdman (and many others) the festival includes industry panels, filmmaker events, and great parties.

The 15th annual Woodstock Film Festival's kick-off event will be the World Premiere of Erez Miller and Henrique Cymerman's feature documentary East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem on Wednesday, October 15 at the Woodstock Playhouse. Filmmaker Erez Miller and two of the film's subjects, David Broza and Steve Earle, will partake in a Q&A after the screening followed by a live acoustic concert featuring David Broza and Steve Earle.

Celebrating 15-years of innovative filmmakers & filmmaking, the Woodstock Film Festival has unveiled its line-up of nearly 150 films, panels, and events, screening Wednesday October 15th through Sunday October 19th, in Woodstock NY, and neighboring towns of Rhinebeck, Saugerties, Kingston and Rosendale.

Project Native is a non-profit environmental education organization committed to growing native plants, maintaining a native butterfly house and wildlife sanctuary, and promoting stewardship of the local landscape.

For the past three years Project Native has hosted a successful day-long environmental film festival. This year, the festival will kick off Saturday, March 29th at 7pm at The Mahaiwe in Great Barrington with a special screening of Revolution, an award-winning film by Rob Stewart, director of Sharkwater.

On Sunday, March 30th Project Native will once again host a full day of environmental films at the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington. As in years past, the day will start at 10:00 am with a film for children and families.

Novelist John Irving is known for his legendary novels, The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, A Widow for One Year and A Prayer for Owen Meany.

Irving will help kick off this week’s Williamstown Film Festival when he’ll speak with Williams College professor Jim Shepard about Irving’s Oscar-winning adaptation of his novel The Cider House Rules.

Based on a story by Pete Hamill, two friends from a Brooklyn grammar school reconnect and realize the impact they and their work had on each other. A Poet Long Ago, directed by Bob Giraldi, screens at FilmColumbia in Chatham, NY during their shorts program on Sunday.

In the film, Sonny, a sanitation worker, and Malloy, a newspaper writer, meet by chance and reminisce about their grammar school days together back in 1970s Brooklyn. Immediately an old wound is opened; flashbacks show how the least likely of the pair had his astonishing gift of writing poetry beaten out of him forever by the narrow-minded father hell-bent on protecting him.

Bob Giraldi is a longtime director who has done everything from directing the film, Dinner Rush, to directing the music video for Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” Pete Hamill is widely known for his contributions to the New York Post and the New York Daily News as a columnist and editor.

Working mainly in television, director Brian Percival has made quite a name for himself in the UK with his work on Downton Abbey extending his reach to this side of the Atlantic.

Percival’s debut theatrical feature The Book Thief is generating early buzz as a contender in the upcoming Hollywood award season. The film will screen as part of the FilmColumbia Festival this Sunday at 3:30pm.